Gladbrook-Reinbeck School Board

April 29, 2012

Thursday evening the Gladbrook-Reinbeck School Board approved the hiring for the following positions: High School Volleyball Coach Jay Arends; assistant high school volleyball coach, Danielle Lujan; head cross country coach Andy McQuillen; high school cheer coach Danielle Coulter; library-media specialist Val Ehlers; middle school social studies and science Brady Swenson; and middle school language arts/science Sara Jansen. Arends has been involved in G-R volleyball by coaching AAU teams for the past few years. Swenson and Jansen are recent UNI graduates and this will be their first year of teaching. Ehlers is TAG/Library/Media Specialist this year at North Tama.

Certified staff and non-teaching contracts were approved for 2012-13 as were the non-teaching salaries. Non-teaching staff received a 3.25% increase. Seasonal staff and substitutes also received a 3.25% increase.

The board approved renewing the Pay Schools program. This allows patrons in the district to pay school fees on-line using a credit card.

Student fees for book and software rental, kindergarten milk program, towel service, music department, class dues, activity ticket, yearbook, 1:1 usage fee and instrumental rental for grades 5-12 remained the same as 2011-12.

Lunch fees increased by 10 cents for everyone, except the lunch fee for adults increased to $3.25, up from $3.10. The board approved the food service agreement with Iowa Association for Educational Purchasing for 2012-13.

Hunt and Associates of Oskaloosa were awarded the 3-year audit bid. The 1st year will be $5,700; 2nd year, $5,950 and 3rd year $6.200.

A 28-E agreement with Eldora-New Providence was approved. This agreement will provide the district access to a certified ELL (English Language Learner) teacher to work with G-R staff in the event the district would have ELL students. The State Department of Education requires that local districts have a plan to meet the needs of ELL students in the district. The cost will be $500.

Principal Matt Leeman presented the high school course description handbook to the board and the major change was that 2012-13 seniors will need 50 credits to graduate and succeeding classes will need 52. The board approved the change.

The board approved hiring a staff member at the rate of $25/hour, to work with students on credit recovery as well as two students in the district with on-going health issues. The program was approved up to 80 hours.

Supt. Tim Kuehl will solicit bids for steam trap replacement at the Gladbrook building. Kuehl told the board the kindergarten numbers at Reinbeck are between 25-28 students and it would be his recommendation to split the class and hire an additional teacher.

Kuehl said there were positive comments made on the Dept of Education Site Visit. A list of summer projects was shared with the board

Principal Bill Parker shared with the board the Gladbrook Women's Club is giving each K-2 staff member at the Gladbrook campus $125 to be used to purchase books. Parker said the middle school choir recently sang for Senior Citizens and at the nursing home.

Principal Matt Leeman had Brady Kuehl give a presentation on VREP (Virtual Reality Education Pathfinder) This year there were 13 students interested and next year 44 students have signed up for VREP. Leeman said several teachers at the high school are currently piloting the program Canvas to try and help them decide if it is a better possible Student Management System available for them than edModo. He said the district needs to start focusing on the restructuring and redesigning of the curriculum K-12 and he believes Canvas would be a good tool to help achieve this.

Val Ehlers gave a year-end report for the District Advisory Committee and told of highlights throughout the year.

In the consent agenda conditional approval was given for the 2012 graduates and student teaching agreements were approved with UNI, Wartburg and Buena Vista-Marshalltown center.